A Date
by somefangirl
Summary: Or, more specifically, getting lost after the fact. Of course, some of the best things are found off the beaten path. ZoLu, AU.
**Happy Birthday Maddie! (even tho the day I'm posting this on FFN is a day after ur bday... I finished it on the 2nd...)**

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"Zoro, this is a strange shortcut." Luffy said. The two of them walked under the full moon, both dressed in suits they'd worn for the nice restaurant they'd recently left. "The resort is behind us."

"The resort must have moved." Zoro said, as if this were the only logical solution.

"I think you're lost." Luffy replied, laughing a bit. "I thought you knew this place!"

"I do." Zoro said. "That's why I know that this is a good short cut."

"If you say so." Luffy replied. He stuck his hands in his pants pockets, content to take in the scenery. The whole beachside town was absolutely beautiful, and at night everything seemed so serene. Luffy couldn't be happier to spend his summer vacation here, and especially not after meeting the resort's greatest lifeguard.

Zoro had saved him after he jumped into the deep end of the pool, believing it to be the shallow end. While it wasn't the best of first impressions, it would be the first in a long string of events where Luffy fell or jumped into the water so that he could meet and talk to the lifeguard with cool hair. Zoro didn't mind Luffy doing this all that much, it made Zoro's job more interesting and it gave Zoro an opportunity to talk to Luffy (even if it got Luffy in trouble for falling in the pool all the time and distracting the lifeguard). Soon Luffy was walking up to the lifeguard stand to chat with Zoro, where he'd spend entire days on some occasions. After a while of this, Luffy asked Zoro on a date, which is what they were currently walking home from.

"It's this way, come on." Zoro says, taking a sharp turn left. Luffy followed, and the two cut through some foliage to reach a beach. The sand was white, and several shells laid scattered throughout the beach. The water would have been clear blue in the day, but in the night the water appeared navy. The sky was clear, and the full, bright moon reflected on the surface, along with thousands of stars. The beach was deserted, and there wasn't a single trace of human life on it. Flowers of all kinds lined the area where the sand and trees met. The waves were small and crashed softly onto the beach. It was quiet, other then the crashing waves. It was huge, quiet, and beautiful.

"This is so cool!" Luffy said, then looked at Zoro. "Is this where you were trying to go?"

The beach was not where Zoro was trying to go, but Luffy seemed to like the beach, so Zoro would definitely look better if he brought them here on purpose and not because he got lost.

"Yeah. Pretty cool, right?" Zoro said as they both took off their socks and shoes. Luffy took a few steps onto the beach and looked around, feeling the soft sand beneath his feet.

"It's breathtaking." Luffy said. As a lifeguard, Zoro's first thought upon hearing this was that if Luffy wasn't breathing he'd need CPR. This lead him to an idea.

"Breathtaking, huh?" Zoro asked. "You know how to fix that?"

"How?" Luffy asked. Zoro leaned over and quickly kissed him, then looked away. Zoro's face was a bit red, and Luffy's changed to match before he started laughing.

"You know what we should do?" Luffy asked.

"What?" Zoro asked.

"Play in the water!" Luffy replied. Zoro looked down at their clothes. They're both in nice suits. Before Zoro could object to going in, however, Luffy grabbed his arm and ran off towards the ocean. He only had enough time to remind Luffy that they should take their phones and wallets out of their pockets before hitting the water. Once their pockets had been emptied and the contents left with their socks and shoes, Luffy lead them into the ocean.

The water was freezing, not that either of them noticed. Since Luffy couldn't swim, they stuck to about knee or thigh height water.

Luffy's first action upon reaching this depth was to bend down and splash Zoro in the face, and then immediately start laughing.

"You little..." Zoro muttered, and then splashed him back. Luffy's laughter quickly turned to coughing.

"Gross! That went in my mouth!" he said. Zoro snickered, only to suffer the same fate as his date as get splashed in the face for the second time.

"Oh, you're dead." Zoro said, and the two of them splashed each other back and forth for several minutes before Luffy decided to end it by tackling Zoro into the water.

"I win!" Luffy said, after sitting up. The water was up to their shoulders, though the slight waves made it reach their necks. Luffy leaned over to try to kiss Zoro again, but a particularly large wave slapped them both in the face. Both of them resurfaced a few seconds later, coughing.

"Zoro, I'm drowning." Luffy complained. Zoro stood up and scooped Luffy up out of the water.

"That better?" He asked. Luffy smiled at him.

"Yup!" Luffy said, wrapping his arms around Zoro's neck. Their clothes, now soaking wet, seemed to weigh a thousand pounds each. Both of them dripped with water. Luffy's hair was plastered around his face and both their suits stuck to their skin, the white shirts poking out from under the jackets almost see through.

"Hey, Luffy, you've gotta help me dig a hole when we get up there." Zoro said.

"What for?" Luffy asked.

"I'm gonna bury you." Zoro replied. Luffy laughed.

"Alright, let's do it." he said.

They were both still sopping wet, so sand stuck to them like glue. Neither of them minded, especially not Luffy. After an hour the hole was dug, only about two and three-fourths feet at its deepest and two feet in diameter. Luffy sat down in the hole and drew his knees loosely up to his chest. Luffy was about up to his chest, and he looked up at Zoro. Zoro took this as a signal to start and began shoving sand into the hole with Luffy.

"This suit is gonna be ruined." Luffy noted as the sand reached his waist. Zoro laughed.

"You were complaining about it all throughout dinner anyway." Zoro said.

"The food there's really good though." Luffy said. "I just don't like the dress code."

The casual conversation continued as Luffy was buried in the ground.

"Done." Zoro said, once only Luffy's head and neck were showing. He stood up and started walking away. "See you back at the resort!"

"Zoro, wait!" Luffy yelled. Zoro kept walking. "Zoro! Get back here and help me out!"

Zoro walked off the beach.

"Zoro!" Luffy yelled. He started trying to pull himself from the sand when Zoro turned around and came back.

"I'm just kidding." he said, starting to dig Luffy up. "I'll help you out, then we should hop in the water again and get the sand off."

It took significantly shorter to get Luffy out of the hole than it took to dig it, since after it reached Luffy's stomach Zoro was able to grab his under arms and pull him out. Zoro carried Luffy back to the water and, at knee height, dropped him.

Luffy yelped as he hit the water, then sat up and coughed. Zoro started laughing, so Luffy rammed his legs and knocked him over.

"You're a meanie." Luffy said. Zoro laughed.

"Just clean up." Zoro said. Luffy nodded and started getting the sand off himself as Zoro did the same. A minute of comfortable silence fell over the two of them until Zoro broke it.

"Shit!" he said, and he stood up.

"What's up?" Luffy asked.

"Crab!" Zoro said.

"You got pinched by a crab?" Luffy asked, giggling a bit.

"Shut it." Zoro said.

"Come on, we can get out of the water. I've got all the sand off of me." Luffy said. Zoro nodded and followed Luffy out to the shore.

"It's getting late." Luffy noted as they reached the shore. He turned around to look at the sky above the water. "You know, the stars look absolutely beautiful from here."

"Yeah, they do." Zoro says, standing a bit behind him.

Luffy unbuttoned his jacket and laid it on the ground, using it to sit on the beach without getting sandy again. He left some room, so Zoro sat down next to him. Luffy leaned against Zoro's shoulder.

"This was fun." Luffy said, and he looked at Zoro. "Let's do this again sometime."

"Sounds like a plan." Zoro replied.

They stayed together like that for a while, leaning on each other and watching the stars reflecting on the water. It was peaceful, so much so that Luffy heard Zoro start snoring. He laughed a bit.

"Good night, Zoro." he said. "I love you."

Luffy continued to stare at the sky, but had he looked over, he would has seen Zoro smiling.


End file.
